Well I can now say I have officially survived my first week in Belize!
Due to very limited Internet access I will be sharing a shortened version of
what all has been going on during this very busy week. I arrived in
Belize City on June 24th after a short staging event in Miami the day before. I
left the U.S. with my diverse trainee group of 19 people (8 men and 11 women)
to begin our journey together. We arrived in Belize City after a fast 2-hour
flight to a welcoming group that consisted of a few members from the staff at
the Peace Corps Office- Belize. We then bused to the Peace Corps office
where we met with the remaining of the staff at the only countrywide office.
The group was split into two groups where we stayed in hotels close in
proximity until Sunday. The fellow PC Volunteers that are currently serving
throughout the country organized a scavenger hunt around the city to
familiarize us with the community and key places that will become useful to us
throughout our service. We had a lot of time to bond and get to know each
other as well as learn how to navigate ourselves around the capital city of
Belmopan. My group also had the pleasure of meeting the U.S. Ambassador to
Belize, Carlos Moreno who gave a very inspirational speech on thanking us for
our service and why the Peace Corps is so respected internationally. After
being placed in the Spanish language training group (which I was relieved to
hear) with 7 other people in my group, I then repacked my bags to condense my
baggage to take to the village of Valley of Peace, where I will be living until
September for the duration of Pre-Service Training. I arrived to the most
beautiful rural area I think I have ever seen. I am thankful to be living in a
very beautiful home that has all of the amenities that would be considered the
norm in the United States. My host mother is Rosa Amaya and I am also living
with her daughter Heidi Amaya. They joke around saying that I essentially have
two host moms since Rosa is old enough to be my grandmother and Heidi is closer
to my mother’s age! I have noticed that the mix between the amazing community
awareness, the scenic agricultural fields, and the pride that families have for
their homes and culture are a few things that I have stuck out to me within the
last few days of living here. Valley of Peace was an El Salvadorian refugee
camp that was established back in 1982 when El Salvadorians fled their country
in hope of protecting their families from violent crimes that were going on in
and around the country. All of this was told to me first hand from my host
brother who was 12 at the time of him traveling to Belize with the family of
10. His family was pioneers to establishing this amazing village and allowing
suffering fellow El Salvadorians a chance of rebuilding their lives and giving
them a sense of “peace”. Hearing his family story and how the village was
started gave me a completely different viewpoint on how I look at the people
who call this home and have for many years.
These people have been more than generous already by welcoming me into
their home and life of which I will forever be grateful for. Last night I
experienced my first “black out” in which we were out of power for about 12
hours but that did not stop my host family from spending dinner together and
ending the night by sitting outside gazing at the stars in the clear night sky
with a few extended family members nearby playing guitars and singing traditional
Spanish songs on the front porch. It was my first time since being here that I
actually had a moment to both reflect on what I have experienced thus far and what
I have to look forward to in the next couple of months. This week was a very intense and stressful training week consisting of courses in culture, language, security and safety, and also health. But, I continue to remind
myself of how lucky I am to have this incredible opportunity to do what I really
want to do in this world that we all live in. With that being said, enjoy some
pictures that go along with what I have experienced and seen through this first
week!
No comments:
Post a Comment